


Turn Back Time

by buckybarnesofthe21stcentury (orphan_account)



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, I will rip your heart out of your chest, Slow Burn, Time Travel, Wild Ride, and patch it up tenderly, ayy get some, get ready, not in a sexual way - Freeform, oh boy, so nice, this starts off nice, unless you want that, you should be, you will be like "wow this is so nice I am almost suspicious"
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-09-03 17:05:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8721748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/buckybarnesofthe21stcentury
Summary: Manhattan is bombed by Hydra, and Reader has to go back in time to destroy the file, hidden in a Hydra facility. Along the way, she runs into the Howling Commandos as they destroy German forts, and Reader meets a certain Commando who keeps distracting her from her ultimate mission...





	1. To Kill Manhattan

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Back in Time](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/244729) by Savrom. 



> I've been wanting to write this for forever, I read a version similar but not for Bucky and decided to write my own for him. Yes, the first chapter is literally all plot detail. But I promise we will get there. Please give me all the suggestions, let me know what you want!

Your phone buzzed, and glanced down, only to choke on your wine.

“Oh my god, Natasha,” you laughed. “Josh just texted me. Nat’s eyes widened and she ran over to your chair.

“Let me see,” she demanded, holding out her hand for your phone.

“No no no, I’m going to read it. ‘Hey girl what's up? Been thinking about u a lot, I miss u. Wanna hang?’ I can’t believe his nerve.” Nat snorted.

“I know, right? What a bag of dicks. How much you wanna bet that Valencia, or Rebecca, or whatever girl he’s with right now caught him cheating? What, breaking your heart wasn’t enough for him?” You rolled your eyes.

“I’m over him. I’ve been over him for a while. Why should I even care?”

“Your petty side cares. Admit it, it’s nice to seem him come crawling back to you. You know what we should do?” Nat asked. You shook your head no. “Track the downfall on social media.”

“I would love to, but I unfollowed him, and all his accounts are private.” Natasha grinned.

“Honey, you’re best friends with a professional super spy. You honestly think I haven’t made fake accounts just to follow him and all his flings?” You gasped.

“You didn’t.” She wiggled her phone seductively.

“Come and see, it’s high quality.” You slid over to her, ready to laugh your ass off. God, you loved your best friend.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You woke up with a pounding headache, which was strange, because you hadn’t remembered drinking that much. There was, oddly, a scent of smoke in the air, and you could feel a faint breeze lifting and dropping your hair against your face. Maybe Steve had tried to cook pancakes again, and now the whole tower had to be aired out? No, that didn’t makes sense. Stirring, you opened your eyes to see a scene of horror laid out before you. The side of the room was completely blown off, and you could see all of what was left of New York. Practically everything was damaged or completely destroyed, and you could only imaging how many injured and dead people were out there. At least that explains the smell, you laughed to yourself in shock. Slightly dazed, you turned to assess your injuries. You had been lucky.

The couch that you slept on had protected you from chunks of the ceiling, but you still laid somewhat pinned underneath one. Only your head was exposed, which you explain why it hurt so much. What could have possibly happened? The last thing you remembered was falling asleep on the couch with Nat. Natasha! Where was she? You squeezed yourself gently out from underneath the chunk of ceiling that lay on top of you, nervously looking around from your friend. Your worst fears were confirmed. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw her red curls lying in a pool of blood peeking out from under another part of the ceiling. Gingerly, you walked over towards her.

“Nat. Natasha! Can you hear me?” You put a finger to where her pulse would have been, but there was nothing. Natasha Romanov, spy extraordinaire and your best friend, was dead. And it looked like she wasn’t the only one. Looking out through the new hole in the wall at the skyline, you wondered if anyone else was even left.

“IS ANYBODY OUT THERE?” you screamed, but all you heard was your own voice echoing, until, by some miracle, you heard a voice answer back.

“YES, WHERE ARE YOU?”

“TV LOUNGE,” you shouted.

“HOLD ON,” you heard in reply. A few minutes later, Steve came running in. “How are you? Anything broken?”

“I’m fine,” you replied. “Still alive, aren’t I?” He grinned weakly.

“Have you seen anyone else?” he asked. You hung your head and pointed to where Natasha lay. “Is she…”

“Dead. I don’t know when. Is anyone else still alive?” Just then there was a loud click, and you heard the voice of an angel.

“This is the Stark tower emergency intercom, I repeat, this is the Stark tower emergency intercom. As you can tell, an emergency has occurred. If you are able, kindly get your asses to the basement. If not, remain where you are, and we will come get you once J.A.R.V.I.S completes a scan for bodies.” You and Steve smiled at each other, then turned to head down the stairs, avoiding the new holes in the ground.

In the basement, Tony and Fury were sitting haphazardly around a folding table. Tony looked pretty bad, but Fury looked like hell warmed over. He had cuts and bruises all over his face, and his left leg was leaking blood. You moved to do something, anything, but he pointed at one of the chairs.

"Sit down.”

“But, your leg!” He shook his head.

“Kid, this is my leg after I patched it up. I’ve sustained internal injuries as well, and do you see a damn surgeon? I’m already dead. I’m just keeping myself alive on pure spite and hatred for the bastards who did this.” You sat down, and Steve pulled up a chair as well. Fury sighed. “As I hope you can tell, we’ve been bombed. We’re some of the only people left in Manhattan. No one saw this coming, not even me. Now, we know the bomb was one created by Dr. Erskine, the same man who gave Rogers all these ridiculous muscles. The file with the bomb was stolen from us prior to WWII, placed in a Hydra facility, and they’ve been sitting on it ever since. Fury coughed, then winced. “But why am I telling you this? Who cares if we knew it’s location in the 40’s, what good does that do us? Ask Mr. Stark.” You turned to look at Tony, wondering what Fury could possibly be talking about.

“I’ve been working on this for a few months now, and I’m pretty sure it works, at least on bananas. I hadn’t tried anything living yet, I didn’t want to risk it until I had at least tried other fruits. But now it seems we have another choice. I built a time machine.” You laughed to yourself. Of course Tony had tried to build a time machine. And thank god he had, because now maybe someone had a chance to fix things.

“So who’s gonna go back, then?” you asked. No one spoke, but they all turned to look at you.

“Fury is dying,” said Steve gently, “And I’m already there. Tony is a Stark, and Howard Stark is there, so he’s a no-go. No one else has come down to the basement, we have to assume they are unable to move. It has to be you.” You wanted to protest, but you knew Steve was right. You had to go, you were the only one that could. Taking a deep breath, you stood up.

“Show me.”


	2. Hit Me With Your Best Shot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reader goes back in time and find the file. But that's not all she finds!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, please let me know what you think. I would love feedback and suggestions!

You walked with Tony and Steve for what felt like miles of hallway until you reached a dead end. Tony moved furtively over towards it, and punched in a few numbers on a keypad that you had somehow failed to notice before. The end of the hallway slid up to reveal a small room. He ushered you inside, and pulled a small key on a chain off a hook on the wall.

“Put this around your neck,” he ordered, quickly moving to punch more buttons on the side of a large metal box in the center of the room. “Ok,” said Tony talking as he worked. “That key is what will open and summon the box as well as unlock it. There’s a keypad on the inside, once the file is destroyed put in the tower coordinates and the exact time you want to get back here, I would write this down, you’ll probably end up there. I’ m putting in the information for where we think the files used to be, so don’t be surprised if you end up in Germany. Come back as quick as you can, and please don’t let anyone see you, I don’t want to mess with time any more than I already am.

You turned to head for the inside of the box, but felt a hand on your shoulder. You turned to see Steve with a miserable look on his face.

“I really wish it was me going, Y/N, but we can’t risk it. Please stay safe,” he worried, pulling you in for a hug.

“My life is already blown to pieces,” you laughed shakily. “Can’t get much worse.” Tony clapped you on the back.

“Good luck,” he said solemnly. “Press the green button when you get inside, and like Spangles said, stay safe.” You stepped into the box, and waved as the door sealed closed. Taking a deep breath, you pushed the green button.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The box started to shake and rattle, so hard that you were knocked to the ground. You clamped your hands over your ears, so loud were the noises outside. There was screaming, and loud rushes of wind like something out of your worst nightmares. This felt like what you imagined death would be like; a huge wall of sound and pain sweeping over you, and you were almost about to black out when it all came to a sudden stop, and you felt the box impact the ground.

You waited a few minutes, then slowly eased the door open to find you were now in a room filled with file cabinet. You eased yourself out of the box and moved to the first file cabinet. Behind you the box fizzled out of existence, leaving only a square dent in the floor to show it had ever even been there. For a second you panicked, then remembered that Tony had said something like this would happen to ensure no one from the past got their hands on the box, especially Hydra. This was a good thing, it meant Tony was ok back (or was it forward) at home.

You looked at the cabinet in front of you, and saw it was labeled BOF-BRE. Alphabetized, and bomb could be in there! This was another good thing. You wiggled the handle, but the cabinet was locked. Pulling a bobby pin out of your hair, you quickly worked it open. Nothing. Searching through CEA-CEN for chemical yielded the same results, and it wasn’t until you looked through EPR-ERV for Erskine that you found the file. Detailed blueprints of a strangely beautiful machine lay inside, as well as information about Steve’s serum. You were tempted to grab that file as well, but you didn’t want to change history any more than this small change you had been sent back to make.

You dropped the bomb file of the ground and were pulling out your lighter when the door to the room was kicked down by two men. One of them had a large bushy mustache and a hat, the other had short brown hair and a gun in his hands, which he was pointing right at you.

“Freeze! Hands in the air,” he barked, waving the gun threateningly to make sure you got the point. He called out into the hallway. “I found one. Some dame going through files.” He kept the gun pointed at you as you slowly moved towards the door and out into the hallway, occasionally poking you in the back to keep you moving forward. You glanced behind you to see the man with the had grab the blueprint and look over it.

“Think it’s important?” he asked. The brown-haired man nodded.

“If it’s important enough to grab when we’re raiding their base, it’s important. Grab it.” You didn’t want to get shot, but you had to destroy that file. You decided to keep quiet until you knew a little bit more, anything more. You were in way over your head now. At least they sounded American.

Outside in the hallway, you saw a few more men, and glanced nervously around. The next thing you saw, however, put your fears to rest. It was Steve! A younger, 40’s Steve, but still the same honorable man you had as a teammate and close friend. Seeing his face helped you ground yourself. If Steve was here, that meant these men were the Howling Commandos, Steve’s group of friends that destroyed Hydra bases with him back in the war. Your mind put the last puzzle piece in place, and you realized that the man with the gun was none other than Bucky Barnes, Steve’s best friend. You opened your mouth to speak, but Steve spoke first.

“The Red Skull. Where is he?” He spoke in a calm tone. You shook your head.

“No idea. But what I do know is that you need to give me that file.” You could see the men draw back in shock; your English words were certainly not something they had expected. Now you had the upper hand. Best to keep them on edge, but tell them as much of the truth as you could.

“Are you… American?” Steve asked cautiously. You nodded. “Then why are you here? Who do you work for?” You took a deep breath, wondering how on earth you would explain your way out of this one.

“My name is Y/N L/N. I can’t tell you who I work for, but you have to believe me. That file must be destroyed.” Steve cocked his head.

“How am I supposed to believe you if you won’t tell me who you work for?” Steve asked gently. You bit back a scream.

“You just have to trust me. If you don’t destroy that file, a lot of people are going to die.” Steve glanced at Bucky, who spoke up for the first time.

“We don’t have time for this. Take the girl and the file back to camp, we can deal with her later. We need to get out of here.” Steve nodded.

“You’re right. Don’t let her make any moves, we still have no idea what she is. And I don’t think all the Hydra agents are dead.”

You walked in an awkward Steve-Bucky sandwich with you as the peanut butter in the middle, both men silently watching you as you silently eyed the guns they were holding. You were walking through what seemed like a large warehouse when you saw him, a Hydra agent leaning over the catwalk above you. No one else seemed to see him, and it would certainly mess up history if Captain America died. And you could see the man clearly aiming at him. You had no choice but to act.

In a split second, you wrenched the gun out of Bucky’s hands and shot the man dead, but not before he shot. You dived in front of Steve, catching the bullet in your shoulder. Steve whirled around.

“What did she do?” He snapped. “I told you to watch her!” Bucky’s eyes widened, and for the first time you could see their color. Blue, like the skies after a rainstorm passed.

“I did. I just watched her save your life, Steve. She took a bullet for you, and shot the guy too.” He looked at you with newfound respect. “I didn’t even see him. You could have _died_. Why does someone always have to save your punk ass?” he grumbled. On the ground, you grinned. Steve had told you all about Bucky, and how much they bickered.

“A little help down here, boys?” you asked. You had just been shot, after all. Bucky bent over to help you up.

“You know, what you just did…” he trailed off, coughing, and you got the strange feeling he was smiling, even though his best friend had just almost been shot. “You can keep the gun. We’ll take you back to home base, get that shoulder patched up. That was real brave,” he said admiringly. “Real brave.”


End file.
